Peter Potamus
The Peter Potamus Show | |
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Also known as | 'Peter Potamus and His Magic Flying Balloon' |
Genre |
Animated Comedy Adventure |
Written by |
Tony Benedict Warren Foster Dalton Sandifer |
Directed by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
Voices of |
Daws Butler Don Messick Howard Morris Mel Blanc John Stephenson Hal Smith Doug Young |
Composer(s) | Hoyt Curtin |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 3 |
No. of episodes | 27 |
Production | |
Producer(s) |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
Running time | 22–26 minutes |
Production company(s) | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
Distributor |
Screen Gems (original) Warner Bros. Television Distribution (current) |
Release | |
Original network |
Syndication ABC |
Picture format |
Black-and-white (syndicated) Color (ABC) / NTSC (480i) |
Audio format | Monaural |
Original release | September 16, 1964 – October 23, 1965 |
The Peter Potamus Show is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera and first broadcast on September 16, 1964. (Early promotional materials for the series carried the title Peter Potamus and His Magic Flying Balloon, but that title never appeared on screen.)
Premise
The Peter Potamus Show was divided into three segments: Peter Potamus and So-So, Breezly and Sneezly and Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey. Peter Potamus was a companion series to The Magilla Gorilla Show and both series premiered in first-run syndication before being picked up by ABC in January 1966. At that time, the Breezly and Sneezly segment was swapped with Ricochet Rabbit & Droop-a-Long, a segment on The Magilla Gorilla Show. After the ABC run ended in 1967, cartoons from Magilla Gorilla and Peter Potamus shows were syndicated together.
The original Peter Potamus series used to be seen on the cable TV channel Boomerang, often as part of its anthology series Boomerang Zoo. During the original run of the cartoon (1964), at the end of each episode, the closing song ended with the phrase: "And there he goes Peter Potamus, our ideal" (The Ideal toy company was the sponsor of the television series. A similarly subtle sponsor reference appeared in the Magilla Gorilla theme song lyrics: "He's really ideal").
Segments
Peter Potamus and So-So
It featured Peter Potamus the hippopotamus (voiced by Daws Butler impersonating Joe E. Brown) and his sidekick So-So the monkey (voiced by Don Messick).[1] Peter is big, purple, and friendly. Episodes generally consisted of Peter and So-So exploring the world in his time traveling hot air balloon. When faced with a certain situation, Peter uses his Hippo Hurricane Holler technique to blow away his opponents.
Breezly and Sneezly
A polar bear named Breezly Bruin (voiced by Howard Morris) and his droopy friend Sneezly the Seal (voiced by Mel Blanc) do various plans to break into the local army camp for various reasons while trying to stay one step ahead of the army camp's leader Colonel Fuzzby (voiced by John Stephenson).
Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey
Three dogs named Yippee (voiced by Doug Young), Yappee (voiced by Hal Smith), and Yahooey (voiced by Daws Butler) work as guards for their unnamed king (voiced by Hal Smith).
Episodes
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27 |
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Voice cast
- Daws Butler - Peter Potamus and Yippee
- Don Messick - So-So
- Howard Morris - Breezly Bruin
- Mel Blanc - Sneezly
- John Stephenson - Colonel Fuzzby
- Hal Smith - Yappee and the King
- Doug Young - Yahooey
Other appearances
- Peter Potamus and So-So appeared in Yogi's Ark Lark and its spin-off series Yogi's Gang.
- Peter Potamus guest starred in the episode "India and Israel" on Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics.
- Peter Potamus guest starred in some episodes of Yogi's Treasure Hunt.
- Peter Potamus made a cameo appearance in The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound as a captain of a boat to Tahiti.
- Peter Potamus appeared in teenager form in the early 1990s series Yo Yogi!, where he was voiced by Frank Welker. He and So-So were shown to own a plant store at Jellystone Mall called Peter Potamus' Plant Palace. In "Tricky Dickie's Dirty Trickies," he is shown to be allergic to goldenrods.
- Peter Potamus and So-So were seen as animatronics in the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Chubby Cheese" during Chubby's song sequence.
- Potamus was also a recurring character on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, where he is voiced in a Brooklyn accent by Joe Alaskey and later voiced by Chris Edgerly. In it, he is a sexually charged hippo and a lazy, sleazy (and inexplicably successful) lawyer who is forever obsessed with strippers and sandwiches. He works at the Sebben & Sebben law firm with Harvey Birdman. Peter has the trademark phrase "Did you get that thing I sent you?". Starting with episode 6 of season 3, "Return of Birdgirl", Peter's hands were changed to hooves.
Home Media releases
The episode Fe Fi Fo Fun is available on the DVD Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Vol. 1. The episode Wagon Train Strain is available on the Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960's Vol. 2 set. The episode Cleo Trio is on the Hanna Barbera 25 Cartoon Collection DVD, part of The Best of Warner Bros. series.
On November 1, 2016, Warner Archive released The Peter Potamus Show- The Complete Series on DVD in region 1 for the very first time, as part of their Hanna–Barbera Classics Collection. This is a Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) release, available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.[2]
Production credits
- Produced and Directed by: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
- Story: Warren Foster, Michael Maltese, Tony Benedict, Harvey Bullock, Harvey Marshall, R. S. Allen, Joanna Lee, Barry E. Blitzer, Barney Phillips
- Story Direction: Alex Lovy, Paul Sommer, Lewis Marshall, John Freeman, Art Davis
- Associate Producer: Alex Lovy
- Featuring the Voices of: Daws Butler, Don Messick, Howard Morris, Mel Blanc, John Stephenson, Doug Young, Hal Smith
- Story Supervision: Arthur Pierson
- Other Voices: Bea Benaderet, Julie Bennett, Herschel Bernardi, Walker Edmiston, Verna Felton, Gerry Johnson, Paul Frees, Ginny Tyler, Nancy Wible, Ge Ge Pearson, Jean Vander Pyl, Janet Waldo, Jimmy Weldon, Hans Conried, June Foray, Vance Colvig
- Musical Direction: Hoyt Curtin
- Animation: Edwin Aardal, Robert Bentley, Jack Ozark, Art Davis, George Goepper, Anatole Kirsanoff, Chuck Harrington, Jerry Hathcock, William Keil, Harry Holt, Ed Love, Tony Love, Lefty Callahan, Dick Lundy, C.L. Hartman, Kenneth Muse, Casey Onatis, George Germannetti, Emil Carle, Lou Kachivas, Larry Silverman, Bernard Posner, John Boersema, Don Patterson, Ray Patterson, Irv Spence, Fred Wolf, Carlo Vinci, Don Williams, Allen Wilzbach, Grant Simmons, Ed Parks, Harvey Toombs, Jack Carr, Jack Parr, Don Schloat, George Nicholas, George Kreisl, Don Lusk, Hugh Fraser, Bob Carr
- Animation Direction: Charles A. Nichols
- Layout: Jerry Eisenberg, Nick Panesis, John Wilson, Dick Bickenbach, Noel Tucker, Noel Quinn, C. L. Hartman, Z.T. Jablecki, Hi Mankin, Moe Gollub, Walter Clinton, Iwao Takamoto, Willie Ito, Warren Tufts, Lance Nolley, Steven Nakagawa, Bob Singer, Bill Perez, Tony Sgroi, Jack Huber, Alex Ignateiv, Dan Noonan, Bruce Bushman, Brad Case, Homar Jonas
- Background: Fernando Arce, Bob Gentle, Rene Garcia, F. Montealegre, Art Lozzi, Bob Caples, Richard H. Thomas, Neenah Maxwell, Ron Dias, Paul Julian, Anthony Rizzo, Lee Branscombe, Bob Abrams
- Production Supervision: Howard Hanson
- Camera: Charles Flekal, Roy Wade, Frank Parrish, Frank Paiker, Norman Stainback, Cliff Shirpser
- Film Editing: Warner Leighton, Don Douglas, Greg Watson, Joseph Ruby, Kenneth Spears
- The Peter Potamus Show
- Copyright C MCMLXIV-V Hanna Barbera Productions
- RCA Sound Recording
- This Picture Made Under the Jurisdiction of IATSE-IA Affiliated with A.F.L.-C.I.O.
- A Hanna-Barbera Production
References
- ↑ Markstein, Don (2008). "Peter Potamus". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on 2015-03-08.
- ↑ "'The Complete Series' Formally Announced by the Warner Archive".